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Venezuela telecom revenues leap 28.83% in Q2

  • August 28th, 2008
  • 11:58 am

Second quarter results shows growth in Venezuela income which is generated by telecommunications services. The income grew by 28.83 percent reaching USD 2.6 billion. According to a report, Investments during the period amounted to USD 236.9 million. At the end of June, there were 93 mobile phone lines per 100 inhabitants.

Statistics shows that

  • No. of mobile subscribers reaches 25.87 million
  • Mobile traffic moves up by 27.91 percent
  • SMS increases by 11.47 billion

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Movistar Venezuela to earn highest ARPU for the period of 2008-2010 (Venezuela)

  • August 18th, 2008
  • 1:43 pm

Venezuela’s, mobile market, is far more dynamic than the fixed-line market, so much so that mobile phones outnumber fixed lines in service by around 4.7 to one. Mobile penetration is among the highest in Latin America. Venezuela is the regional leader in terms of SMS traffic, the number of text messages surpassing the number of minutes an average Venezuelan talks on a mobile phone. Venezuela is the only country in Latin America where CDMA is still the leading technology, but the two leading mobile operators, Movilnet and Movistar, are finally turning to GSM.

Notable highlights of the 3Q08 Venezuela Mobile Forecast include:

  • The number of subscribers in Venezuela will increase from 28 million in 2008 to a forecasted 31.6 million in 2010.
  • The wireless penetration level in the country will increase from 100.1% to 108% over this period.
  • It is forecasted that Movilnet and Movistar Venezuela will be losing market share to Telvenco. Movilnet is expected to see its market share decline from its projected 40% in 2008 to 39.1% in 2010 while Movistar Venezuela will see a similar drop in market share from 38.3% in 2008 to 38.8% in 2010. On the other hand, Telvenco which will see its market share increase from 21.8% to 22.5% over this period.
  • Movistar Venezuela will continue to receive the highest ARPU in the country. However, its monthly ARPU will still decline from US$ 23.34 in 2008 to US$ 19.15 in 2010. Overall, the average ARPU in the country will fall from US$ 18.52 to US$ 15 over this period.

   

Mobile Handset factories to be established in Venezuela

  • August 1st, 2008
  • 11:03 am

The Government and the companies ZTE and Huawei are in collaboration to set up two new factories that will make mobile handsets in Venezuela.  It is expected that the factories will be ready between the end of 2009 and 2010. First factory will be in the state of Falcon while the second will be at the headquarters of Cantv and could later be moved to Paraguana or even to Cuba. In dveloping the Mobile telephony technologies, countries like China, Japan, Morocco and Sweden will be helping Venezuela.

Digitel aims 100% GSM coverage (Venezuela)

  • July 29th, 2008
  • 12:51 pm

Digitel, Venezuela, has reported that it has rolled out a total of 80 new GSM base stations in the first six months of this year, with deployments in every state in the country.

The cellco says it covers at least 85% of all communities nationwide, giving an overall population coverage of over 90%, and it is aiming to reach as near to 100% coverage as possible by the end of the year. According to a database, in full-year 2007, Digitel added a total of 260 new GSM/GPRS/EDGE base stations to reach new areas and improve the quality of voice and data transmission in existing coverage zones.

   

Oi pays €2.2b to control Brasil Telecom (Brazil)

  • April 28th, 2008
  • 2:18 pm

Brazil’s Oi telecommunications company announced will pay 5.9 billion reals (US$3.5 billion, €2.2 billion) for control of the nation’s No. 3 fixed line carrier in a deal supported by the government to spur competition, an Associated Press report said.

The deal will create a huge fixed line operator spanning most of Latin America’s most populous country, and will give the combined company about 17% of Brazil’s fast-growing cell phone market, the report said.

Controlling shareholders of Oi, whose official name is Tele Norte Leste Participacoes, announced the long-awaited deal in a filing submitted to Brazilian securities regulators.

It must still be approved by regulators, but Brazilian government officials have repeatedly stated they support the combination because it will increase competition for the two other big national players: Spain’s Telefonica and Mexico’s America Movil, the latter owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.

Oi is controlled by a group of Brazilian investment funds, and Brasil Telecom is controlled by Brazilian investment funds and Citigroup.

The Associated Press report also quoted Communications Minister Helio Costa as saying that the combined company would be a dominant player in the fast-growing Brazilian market while also operating in nations like Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.

   

CANTV expanded network in 14 municipalities in last quarter (Venezuela)

  • January 16th, 2008
  • 2:41 pm

Venezuelan fixed line incumbent CANTV expanded the reach of its PSTN to 14 additional municipalities in eight provinces in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to a company statement reported by BNamericas. The municipalities to receive fixed telephony and internet services are Aragua de Barcelona, El Molino, Palmarito, Zea, Tres Picos, El Cordon de Cariaco, Chichiriviche de la Costa, El Penon, Caujarito, Puricaure, Arepeta, Perija, La Punta de Paraguaipoa and Moina. The state-owned telco aims to expand its network to another 114 municipalities across the country this year.

   

 

 

CANTV and ETB begin cross-border fibre link (Venezuela)

  • September 26th, 2007
  • 1:11 pm

Venezuelan state-owned incumbent CANTV and Colombian municipal telco Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogota (ETB) have started installing a fibre-optic cable linking San Cristobal in Venezuela with Cucuta in Colombia,CANTV expects the approximately 100km cable to be completed by May 2008.

   

 

 

 

 

Venezuela sees fixed-line customers grow to 4.5 mln (Venezuela)

  • September 4th, 2007
  • 3:36 pm

Venezuela had 4.5 million fixed-line customers at end-June, up from around 2.5 million in 2000, according to figures quoted by Jesse Chacon, the country’s telecommunications & IT minister. The growth is due to the boost given to the telecommunications sector by the organic telecommunications law, passed in 2000. Fixed-line penetration rose 6 percent. The number of mobile phone lines was 21 million at end-June 2007, up 77 percent from around 5.4 million in 2000, when penetration was 22.47 percent. Of mobile phone income, around 20 percent is due to text messaging, according to Chacon.

The number of internet subscribers grew 10.8 percent between end-2006 and end-Q2 2007. Internet penetration grew to 17.7 percent. Pay-TV penetration was 22 percent at end-June 2007, vs 16.6 percent in 2000, with subscribers growing from 770,000 to over 1.4 million.

Operating revenue for the whole telecommunications sector was around USD 3.8 billion in Q2, and investment at end-Q2 was USD 538 million. Local telephony had 647,000 new users in Q2 2007, up 16.8 percent vs Q2 2006.

The number of mobile lines grew from 15.7 million at end-Q2 2006, with 34 percent relative growth. Mobile penetration is forecast to be over 80 percent at end-2007. The number of internet subscribers was 4.8 million, up 30.5 percent from 3.7 million. The number of pay-TV subscribers grew from 1.2 million at end-Q2 2006, with 16.2 percent relative growth.

   

Venezuela’s Cantv cuts public-to-mobile rates (Venezuela)

  • August 27th, 2007
  • 2:34 pm

Venezuelan incumbent telco Cantv has cut the rates of calls from its public telephones to mobile phones, the company said in a statement.

The measure includes all calls to mobile operators from public and metered telephones as well as from public telecenters.

The rate for calls from public telephones to Cantv’s mobile unit Movilnet is now 240 bolívares (US$0.11) per minute while calls to other mobile operators cost 260 bolívares.

The company also decided to cut rates of calls made through its calling card Un1ca to all mobile operators.

On July 1, the company implemented a 28% reduction in fixed-to-mobile calling rates between Cantv and Movilnet.

Besides Movilnet, the other mobile operators in the country are Movistar, a unit of Spanish giant Telefónica (NYSE: TEF), and Digitel.

   

 

 

CANTV posts solid 2Q results

  • August 6th, 2007
  • 3:07 pm

Venezuelan incumbent fixed line operator CANTV has reported a net profit of VEB266 billion (USD124 million) for the second quarter of 2007, up 178% year-on-year, on revenues that rose 31.3% to VEB2.09 trillion. In 2Q06 profits had fallen 16% year-on-year due to a reduction in income tax benefits and lower exchange rate gains. The telco’s wireless unit Movilnet ended June with 8.6 million mobile customers, up 31.2% in twelve months, with mobile traffic up 43% year-on-year, whilst its high speed fixed internet subscribers increased by 60.5% on 2Q06, to 609,000. Fixed lines in service stood at 3.7 million at 30 June 2007, up 18.4% compared to a year earlier, and public telephones in service grew 6.8% y-o-y to 7,438. Mobile business accounted for 48% of quarterly revenues, fixed line telephony contributed 39% and broadband represented 13%. CAPEX in the first half of 2007 was VEB602 billion, the bulk of which was spent on expanding mobile and broadband access infrastructure nationwide, with other significant investments in a next generation network (NGN) and in the expansion of the fixed line network. The company said that investment for 2H07 will be dominated by the ongoing rollout of a nationwide GSM network to operate alongside Movilnet’s CDMA infrastructure.